It's Winnipeg's Black Eye. Not CFL's.

I keep reading and hearing what a blackeye it would be for the CFL if the Grey Cup doesn't sellout in Winnipeg? To that I say "huh"?

LIke to me, the game not selling out is a blackeye on the city of Winnipeg and its fairweather fans.
I mean to me it shows they suck as a sports town.

After all they lost the Jets because outside of those "whiteout" playoff games they couldn't get 10,000 fans out to Winnipeg ARena. And we all know how fairweather they are towards the Bombers.

So Winnipeg may not sellout the Grey Cup. And their media acts like this is somehow a great thing? Why they would feel this way who knows? Because they're the real losers if this happens. Not the CFL.

It didn't sell out in Regina either. I don't blame the city, I think it depends on who the teams are, and how far away they are.

I think Vancouver last year may have been the first "legitimate" sell-out in a number of years.
Usually right before the game, those last 6000 tickets are miraculously sold, and a sell-out is announced.
Then you go to the game and there are gaping holes in the crowd with empty seats.
So I don't see any "blackeyes" resulting if the game isn't sold out.

berezin go hide in a corner. Ya pk i know how the city of winnipeg arenm;t the biggest sp[orts fans but u show the negetive facts. ya ok the city doesn't have places for people to stay which is hurting the seeling of tickets. But lets face some facts. for instance the World Junior Championships. Just about every freaking game canada or not was sold out at both the winnipeg arena and selkirk. Or lets look at the 2 times we hosted the Panam Games. O ya more sellouts and big crowds. Or or the brier, tourament of hearts, heck even figure skating championships. it all equals sellouts. O ya and 1 last point the Goldeyes. last time i checked this city continuely breaks attendence recrds for the Northern League. So please explain to me how my city is not a city of sports fans. Chances are you can;t so just keep it shut cuz you have no idea what your talking about.

The Peg city ...will be Rocking...
35 hundred tickets ...no problem...
It's not what the CFL can do for, The Peg..
It's what The Peg can do for The CFL....
Make it something special..Cause it is...

Look, print media is going to find something to write about, and they love blaming the CFL for everything. Heck, I bet they blame the CFL for the war in Afghanistan, if you look hard enough, I'm sure there is an article on this. As I said, print people have to write this as they know they are the small boys compared with the TV boys.

Earl:
It was Paul Friessens article in the Winnipeg Sun yesterday that really ticked me off. The guy was almost gloating that the game might not sellout. Like somehow it makes the CFL look bad? I say it works the other way around.

I say its time the CFL look to expand to more vibrant cities like London, Quebec City and Halifax, and forget about these lousy sports towns like Ottawa and Winnipeg. I don't see why Frank D'Angleo doesn't look at a new city over Ottawa.

And Football Mad:
YOu sellout for baseball? Whats that, 2,000 seats at 5 bucks a seat? And whats a Goldeye by the way? In fact whats a Northern League?

Gee, you don't support the Bombers, and lost the Jets, but your claim to fame is you sellout for the Goldeyes of the Northen League? I wouldn't be boasting about that too much.

berezin wrote:
guy was almost gloating that the game might not sellout.

He's just in a fit like a lot of them because he applied for a television position and he got turned down in a second. So now he has to prove he's a big man and has all this clout and can make this or that succeed or fail on his prose. What a joke a lot of print media are, just little people but legends in their own minds.

Ok, this thread has got me thinking and went on to Google and it was easy to see that newspapers are laying off people left, right and centre and that many see newspapers as dying and maybe even one day obsolete. Readership is down and many people today are getting their news from 24 hour news channels and online. Blogs are cropping up everywhere. By the time you purchase that newspaper in the morning, so much news has been generated that the paper is already out of date.
The biggest thing for me that I've noticed is that when I go to the public library and look where the newspapers are, it's all older people reading them, hardly ever see younger people reading them. The younger people of today are being raised in a digital world, unlike me, and the print media I think will soon become obsolete as us oldies die out.

Moral of the story - lets not take what writers say too seriously, especially in sports. Be very concerned though if TV networks don't want to carry CFL games or whatever games or sport you love. That is a true sign that something is wrong.

....IF....and its a very BIG IF right now....the Riders get past the Leos' this weekend...i would say there won't be enough seats in the Peg....THOSE TICKETS WILL BE GONE.....and if it dosen;t turn out that way......there's still time to sell off the rest locally...why all the panic.. :roll:

Ok i don;t support my bombers. So then tell me why I love nothing more but going to Canad Inns to watch them play, or why I always watch away games on tv or listen to the radio, or y do i buy jerseys, hets, shirts, jerseys, etc… or how about the fact i know every player by number on the team, or the fact that i am a volunteer for the grey cup parade. Take a shot at that 1.

And with the goldeyes which is a fish by the way. The city has always had great support for the team. so ya once again your making yourself look like an idiot trying to say that one the biggest beomber fans on this site doesn’t support his team.

There is also the matter of the "returns"...Tickets allocated to all CFL teams which are mostly returned when their team is eliminated. This usually adds several thousand unsold tickets during GC week.

Let's face facts. Wpg is just not that great of a sports town...Losing their NHL team...Almost losing the Bombers who were $5 million in debt...Received $700k this season after asking for a handout from other CFL teams, etc.

But, I wish them well. Even with their crummy stadium, etc, Wpg is still a microcosym of the CFL, warts and all. 8)

A bit harsh there on Winnipeg Invader. Every team in every league is a microcosm of the league they play in for crying out loud, at least in some way or another. Winnipeg is as good of a sports town as any you will find, you need facts. Maybe the Grey Cup tickets are overpriced for those seats still unsold. Remember what they say in real estate, every property has a buyer. And the same holds true for a game, every seat has a buyer if it is priced right for the event. Not that this means it will actually have a ticket purchased for it but the liklihood increases when it is "priced sharp", again as they say in real estate.

It maybe a big if… but it is still a possibility at this point.

…definitely an up-grade in the stadium is needed…and that will come before another Cup comes to the Peg…but as far as being a poor sports town…i think you got your wires crossed…Winnipeg has supported the CFL. FOR A VERY LONG TIME…I remember we took on a Grey Cup when no one else wanted it,and made something of it…and my friend …the 700 k was given to the Bombers for being displaced in 06 …and sent to the east division…it wasn’t for some kind of bail-out as you say…So get your facts straight before you start embarassing :oops: yourself… :lol:…and as a side note…the Winnipeg Blue Bombers financial deficit was wiped out…

...why is there an ongoing need in this forum for fans of one city to cut down another city based on opinions that are groundless in fact?.....the GC in Winnipeg will be just fine and the citizens will have every right to be proud of being the hosts....BC had a great one last year and Toronto will have a great one next year.....will Winnipeg be better than BC and Toronto be better than Winnipeg?.....who cares!....

....thank-you RedW....well said....This Grey Cup game and all that goes with it will be at its entertaining best.....no matter what... :thup: :rockin:

Did I get you right that there are 3500 tickets left?
So what?
Thats nothing! Wait till monday when the teams have been decided. Im sure the remaining tickets will be sold. Even if they are not so what!

Don't y'all know that the GC in Ottawa was the best! HAHA! I agree with RW. We shouldn't be slagging each other off. The whole thing about the Grey Cup is that it brings people to together! Feel the Love!!!!

I can comment on both sides of the fence on this topic. I was born and grew up near and in Winnipeg until I was 25, and still am a die hard Bomber fan even though I left there 15 years ago. The reality then and now is not much different from what I see when I visit family and friends still back there almost every year or two. Wpg has a hardcore of maybe 20-25,000 football fans. It is always a major chore to get more than that out to a game, summer or winter. I know for a fact that in 1998 when I went to that Grey Cup in Wpg, there was many people saying tickets were way too much and they would wait until the last moment to buy some since they knew they would go at a last minute firesale price, and even then there was no gaurantees they would go. Always the same excuses, winter or summer in Manitoba. Going out to cottage, no parking near the stadium, or it's too cold for the playoff games or some other constant lame excuses from many people and it still goes on. Quite frankly it was one of the many reasons I left there because of that kind of loser attitude. Wpg is a bargain bin town for the most part, always looking for a sale on everything even if it means wasting more money on gas to go to some store half way across the city, but boy oh boy I saved that $1 on some item! It can't be any different though since it does not have a big economic base. Not good or bad and it will still always be the old hometown to me, but that's just the way it is. Tickets have to be priced reasonably for this to work there. In 1991, the game sold out quickly since it was the first time ever in Wpg, but the Bombers were also a championship team the year before which also helped. The last two Cups had Wpg being pathetic the prior few years. The week long Grey Cup party will be good though. People know how to party and let their hair down in Wpg when the time comes. Hopefully it be decent weather come game time (it was toasty in 1998, 1991 was brutally cold!). I'm hoping Sask wins this weekend and then Wpg can experience the green invasion force like I saw here in Calgary this past Sunday!! :wink: